


No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

by squire



Series: Kylux Tumblr fills [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Crack, Flowers, It backfires spectacularly, Kylo tries to be nice, M/M, Pre-Slash, Pre-TFA, Tumblr ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 05:16:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7030480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squire/pseuds/squire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo tries to do something nice for the General. It goes about as well as you'd expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this anonymous prompt on my Tumblr:
> 
> Kylux prompt - Hux secretly loves flowers. He'd die denying how much he loves them. He loves watching petals and flowers dance in the air. Kylo finds out and uses the force to give Hux a grand flower show.
> 
>  
> 
> (turned out the op of the prompt didn't like this fill, if the tags on one of the reblogs are anything to go by, but I am posting it here anyway.)
> 
>  
> 
> I tinkered with the prompt for a bit because I was still so high on melatonine that my brain was set in crackastic mode. I’m sorry:)

The first time Ren goes on a snooping spree through the General’s quarters, he notices it immediately. 

Beautiful, branchy, richly leaved plant, a shock of glossy red-tinted green, so out of place in the otherwise cold, orderly, regulation-grey rooms. It takes up an entire shelf above the desk, well-trimmed, well-watered, and obviously much cared for.

Ren files it away as a handy vent in the case he should ever get into a fit of rage while inside Hux’s quarters and needed to shatter something else than Hux’s rock-gelled hair. 

 

*

 

There’s a delicate offshoot hanging down from the riot of leaves above Hux’s desk the next time Ren sees the plant. They are discussing something - well, Hux is lecturing him and Ren is putting in counter-arguments whenever he can - and the Knight observes, with some degree of fascination, how Hux’s hand touches the little bud at the end of the offshoot every once in a while, absentmindedly, gently. 

Ren looks up the plant in the holoarchives that evening. He finds out that it almost never flowers but when it does, it blooms in big, purple bells, famed as very pleasing to the eye. 

Maybe that’s why Hux was in such a good mood earlier - actually ceding to some points Ren made - he must be excited for his flower’s rare success. Ever the achiever. 

 

*

 

Curiosity gets the better of Ren and he sneaks into Hux’s quarters again the next day. There’s no blossom on the plant. Disappointed, he snoops through the waste bin. There it is - a limp, already dead, not yet unfolded bud. It must have withered before it could bloom. The plant is reportedly very sensitive.  

Ren almost feels sorry for the General before he remembers himself and feels sorry for the poor bridge crew doomed to bear the brunt of Hux’s bad mood today. Then he remembers himself once more and decides there is no reason he should be feeling sorry for anyone. Well… maybe for the plant. He’d like to see it flower. 

Curiously enough, Hux shows no signs of moroseness throughout the entire shift. Ren curses Hux’s perceftly collected, emotionless Academy-face and makes sure he’s wearing his helmet all day. 

 

*

 

After the second time, it becomes a pattern. Ren visits Hux’s quarters officially quite often, considering their joint commandership of the Finalizer, and every time he spies a ready-to-burst bloom on the plant and Hux’s tiny, carefully concealed happy expression, the very next day he finds the plant trimmed and the bud dead in the waste bin. It’s infuriating. Ren would suspect Hux of doing it on purpose to annoy Ren, denying him to see the beauty of the blossom, but why would he cut it off even before he could see it for himself? 

No, it must be the plant’s shortcoming. Perhaps it’s unable to sustain the flower. Perhaps it needs more fertiliser, or less water, or different soil…

Hux must be quite sad about this, Ren figures. Such a recurring failure. And yet he bears it admirably - never the slightest crack in the haughty, I’ve-got-everything-under-my-control facade. Begrudgingly, Ren respects him for that. 

 

*

 

One day he arrives to a meeting with the General early, and immediately notices another frail, soft-looking bud, half-hidden amongst the leaves. Before he knows what he’s doing - and more importantly, _why_ he’s doing it - he summons the Force and tries to make it come into bloom. 

It works. It’s beautiful. Utterly breathtaking. Purple, red-veined petals forming a perfect bell around the long, golden sprinkled stamens. Ren has rarely ever felt so proud of his powers. 

The General enters his quarters and freezes, staring at the plant. His jaw actually drops - Ren hears the shallow intake of breath through the open mouth and feels his pride swell. Then he notices Hux’s eyes - turning red-rimmed, welling up with real tears - and Ren's heart does a funny thing in his chest, tightening and expanding at once. He's done well. He's made this cool, acerbic man _cry with happiness_. And out of nowhere, Ren realises that he doesn't even want to gloat over it. He did it simply because he liked the idea, he liked making Hux happy…

Then Hux sneezes. 

And again. And again. And approximately fifteen more times after that. 

“Put it away,” he wheezes, voice wet and croaky, face blotchy-red and eyes swollen into puffy slits, when he finally gets his breathing under control and collapses, shaking, into a chair. 

“For heaven’s sake, Ren, put it away. Don’t you know I am allergic to pollen?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sinningsquire on Tumblr. Come say hello :)


End file.
